there will be a bunch of republicans led by john mccain and joe lieberman and lindsey graham who are going to argue for longer troop deployments. waiting to see what the conditions are on the ground. having more troops there than the administration wants and a big segment of the republican caucus that will not support that. and that, again, is the divide inside the republican caucus. ultimately the president is going to have to balance the risk of withdrawing troops faster against the goal of leaving afghanistan as stable and secure as possible. and whatever his decision is going to be, that's going to be his legacy. so that's going to be his responsibility. >> is there anybody else who's stepping up on the john mccain side of this? i mean, at this point john mccain is a noun and verb and don't cut and run. he's really -- i feel like his credibility on foreign policy issues is getting pretty wispy at this point. is there anybody else who's taken the place of him as he becomes less and less relevant? >> mark kirk, kelly ayotte, marco rubio. prepared to carry this water on the republic